Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

If you have an upcoming court date you have only been charged, not convicted. If you hire an attorney you don't have to appear in court at all, and your attorney could enroll you in a diversion program for which you might be eligible. You do not have to stay in the state until your court date. There are no guarantees, but it is unlikely you would serve jail time.

Assuming charges are filed against you by the date you're supposed to appear, either you or an attorney on your behalf must appear or a warrant goes out for you.

Depending on the facts of the case, with no record, you may be eligible for some alternative disposition. There are different options and depending on your particular circumstances, some are better outcomes than others. Diversion programs are good, but depending on how they are structured, they may still have negative consequences. There are clean ways to get out from underneath this though - again depending on the facts and what you and your attorney do between now and your court date.

You were apparently arrested, not 'convicted', yet.

Of course you can fight it. Effective plea-bargaining, using your defenses and sympathies, could possibly keep you out of jail, and/or get a dismissal, diversion, reduction or other decent outcome, or you can take it to trial if appropriate. If serious about hiring counsel to help you in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me. I�ll be happy to help use whatever defenses there may be.